And people thought Carlos Ghosn was optimistic. Derrick Kuzak, Ford’s group vice president of global product development, has said that, within the next ten years, electric-drive models – hybrids, plug-in hybrids and battery-powered vehicles – could account for up to a quarter (!) of Ford’s global automotive sales. Kuzak, along with Ford’s chief executive officer, Alan Mulally, and the automaker’s director of global electrification, Nancy Gioia, all seem to agree, claiming that sales of electric-drive models are set to take off soon.
In 2015, Ford expects that gas-electric models, plug-in hybrids and battery-powered vehicle will account for somewhere between two and five percent of its total global sales. By 2020, Kuzak thinks that number will rise up to at least ten percent, and could reach 25 percent. Of course, Kuzak admits that most of the electric-drive models sold will be conventional hybrids, which accounted for a mere one percent of Ford’s global sales in 2010, and not pure battery vehicles. But, still.
Ford’s goal is to make electric-drive models that buyers can afford since, Kuzak stated, lower cost is key to increasing sales volume:
The real step that needs to be taken on electrification is to make electrified vehicles affordable. One way to make them affordable is to drive volume. That’s really the whole basis of our strategy. Our next generation of hybrids will be at an even lower cost.
